1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording sheet for use in an ink jet printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ink jet printers are widely used as they offer many superior properties including good recording clarity, quiet operation and easy access to color recording. Taking into consideration the impact on the environment, and the need to prevent blockages of the ink discharge nozzles resulting from drying of the ink, the ink used in these ink jet printers is usually not a solvent based ink, but is rather a water based ink in which a colorant such as a pigment or a dye and other additives are either dissolved or dispersed in water.
However, because water based inks use water as the solvent, the inks are slow to dry, and when sprayed onto recording sheets such as plain paper, the inks tend to bleed and cannot be reliably adhered to the sheet. As a result, recording sheets for recording with ink jet ink typically comprise an ink receiving layer, which displays good receptivity relative to water based inks, provided on top of a support. Examples of this ink receiving layer include layers comprising a mixture of a water soluble polymer such as polyvinyl alcohol, and a porous inorganic pigment such as amorphous synthetic silica, alumina such as α-alumina, or an alumina hydrate as the primary constituent. If the ink receiving layer is formed using this type of mixture, then the water based ink is absorbed instantaneously, and bonds reliably to the recording sheet.
In recent years, ink jet printers have become widely used for full color printing applications. An ink jet recording sheet for full color printing requires a high gloss in order to ensure vivid prints, and also needs to be capable of producing a highly detailed image with a high print density and no bleeding. However with conventional ink jet recording sheets, the gloss and print density following print recording has not been entirely satisfactory, and in full color applications, the printing of vivid prints has proved problematic.
The present invention takes the above factors into consideration, with an object of providing an ink jet recording sheet which on recording produces an image with excellent gloss, and which is capable of producing a vivid full color image with a high print density.